Captain's Fury

SPOILERS AHOY, so if you haven't read the book yet, and you'd like to remain spoiler-free, just kinda wait on this till you're done. This is book 4 of the "Codex Alera" series by Jim Butcher. The entire series thus far:

Furies of Calderon
Academ's Fury
Cursor's Fury
Captain's Fury

REVIEW:
Now this is how to write an ongoing series! Each book has a setup, a crisis, and a resolution. ALL of these contribute to the ongoing story, without either hijacking it or being hijacked by it. We don't have to wait till the next book or two or three to see how Tavi's going to handle the Canim - we see it here, in this book. Lots of development of the ongoing plot, as well: Tavi discovers who he really is, who his parents are, and decides to own his heritage. Isana and Rari finally declare their love openly...and Bernard and Amalda do too. Lots of surprise twists in this book as well! Who ever heard of a Marat having furies? Interestingly, Kitai has them - and nobody can quite believe it (well, except her. The Marat pretty much accept everything, don't they?)

SYNOPSIS: Tavi gets involved in politics in this one - and not just "politics", but POLITICS. He fends off political attacks as well as assassination attempts, while trying to be the Captain of the Legionnaires he's been entrusted with. The Knights Pisces and the Battlecrows get some good workouts as they work to save lives with the rest of Tavi's Troops.

Isana is told by Rari that Tavi needs to know the truth. She tries to tell him, she really does, but ultimately she can't. She doesn't want him to hate and mistrust her. Rari eventually realizes that she didn't tell Tavi his heritage, so he does. Tavi is understandably upset that Isana's been lying to him (and suppressing his talents!) for his entire life, but eventually comes to accept her reasons.
He's still having problems with his talents' manifestation, though. He still can't call any Furies, although he can call the abilities of furycraft - enhanced strength, healing, precision, etc. However, until he can manifest Furies, he won't be accepted.
The conflict with the Canim comes to a head, and Tavi once again sees what needs to be done, and goes and does it. He smuggles Varg out of his incarceration, and gets him back to the Canim main force. The deal: if he returns Varg to the Canim, they'll build boats and go back home to fight the Vord. (One of the best lines of the book occurs during this operation. They're on board a ship for a couple weeks. Varg expresses his relief to finally be off the ship, saying, "it smells like wet human." *snicker*)
During the jail-break, Isana notices Kitai using Fury-power, and realizes that Kitai's "bonding" with Tavi has resulted in Kitai's ability to "share" his abilities. Kitai is the first, and only, Marat to ever have furycraft.
Unfortunately, one of the Lords of Alera has other ideas, and launches an attack that the Canim interpret as a betrayal. Now Tavi has to deliver the traitor to them, and anyone else that was involved. Tavi does so in inimitable style: he openly declares his heritage, challenges the traitor-Lord to the juris macta, and (of course) succeeds against the Champion that was sent to defeat him. Not with Furies, but with his brains.
His brains come to his aid shortly thereafter, as well, as he confronts Gaius Sextus after all is said and done. He suggests that a mass amnesty be declared for anyone that helped rid the country of the Canim, and that his name be slid in with the rest of the group, rather than a single amnesty being declared simply for him. He also suggests he go to the Canim homeland and help them defeat the Vord, to give himself time to further practice his furycraft and to give people a chance to "forget" him as he was and for Sextus to rally support for him in absentia. Sextus agrees this is a good idea and thus the stage is set for the next book.

COMMENTS: Excellent book. This is definitely a series that I want to own rather than just borrow from the library. That way, not only am I personally supporting the author and his work, but I can read them again and again, whenever I want to. (I recommend buying the hardcover, though - that way they'll last through more readings. I can see the paperbacks needing to be replaced within a couple years.) I want to read the next one, and the next, and so on - not because the book ends with a "tune in next time for the next exciting chapter in this plot!" but because Butcher writes in such a way as to make me care about what happens next. Each of the books is a single story in itself, and can easily stand alone. However, the elements of a Story Arc are definitely there, and I want to see how it ends! Not only that, but I want to see how the "stuff I've already guessed" gets handled by the characters.
VERY well done.
5 bones for this one! CRUNCH!